Ministry of Rural Development
Foundation Day of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana  celebrated as “Kaushal Se Kal Badlenge”
Union Minister of Rural Development Shri Narendra Singh Tomar appreciates training of 10.51 lakh rural youth and successful placement of 6.65 lakh under DDU-GKY
Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, celebrated Foundation Day of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana  on the occasion of Antyodaya Diwas today. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Panchayati Raj and Food Processing Industries graced the occasion along with Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Rural Development.
Shri Narendra Singh Tomar congratulated all the stakeholders of DDU- GKY on the occasion of Antyodaya Diwas for setting a benchmark in implementation of the program. He exhorted rural youth for getting skilled as no degrees can fetch a job if youth is not skilled and that only skill can lead to a better future. He also emphasized on importance of self-employment and designing one’s own future. The Minister expressed his happiness over the fact that under DDU-GKY, 10.51 lakh rural youth have been trained and 6.65 lakh successfully placed so far. He highlighted the importance of skilling in making India a prosperous country.
On this occasion, Shri Tomar inaugurated Agripreneurship Program and released the following during this program:
- Guidelines regarding Captive Employment under DDU- GKY
- Guidelines for Promotion of Integrated Farming Cluster 
- Compendium of success stories of DDU- GKY placed candidates
An MoU was also signed between MoRD, ICAR  & RCRC  for capacity building of Farmer Producer Organisations /StartUps and providing incubation support in rural areas.
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Rural Development congratulated all the stakeholders for organizing this program, " Kaushal Se Kal Badlenge". She mentioned that sharing of the story of successful candidates shall be motivational for other rural youths to join this program. She impressed upon the importance of rural development in the context of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat through skilling'. She stressed to all stakeholders regarding the need to bring other interested rural youths under DDU-GKY to become independent and a change agent in the society.
The Union Ministers interacted with some placed candidates and employers from 4 different locations, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Gurugram &Hyderabad. The candidates who got skilled and are now successfully placed today with different employers, shared their unique life experiences.
Secretary  Shri Nagendra Nath Sinha highlighted the achievements of DDU-GKY during the last 6 years of implementation. He also talked about importance of DDU-GKY and integrated farming initiative for rural development across the country. He sincerely hoped that DDU-GKY would achieve greater success in skilling and placing the rural youth in times to come.
This program was virtually attended by State Skill Missions, State Rural Livelihoods missions, Rural Development Department of States/UTs, Project Implementing Agencies, Employers and rural youths from all over the country.